Analysing Innovation Management and Business Strategy at Aston Martin

This report provides an innovation audit of Aston Martin, a leader in the luxury car industry. It explores the company's innovation history, from early aerodynamic designs to modern technological advancements. The report assesses Aston Martin's current innovation performance and capabilities using SWOT and VRIO analysis, highlighting strengths like high-quality cars and world-class design, and weaknesses such as dependence on limited suppliers. Opportunities like expanding into affordable automobiles and electric vehicles are discussed, along with threats like rapid technological change and competitor innovation. The report emphasizes the importance of knowledge transfer through cross-functional cooperation and concludes with an analysis of industry trends in 2021, including autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence. Desklib offers a wealth of resources for students, including solved assignments and past papers.

Managing Innovation in
Business

Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................5
The Organisation & Industry Overview.................................................................................5
The Organisation (introduce the chosen organisation) and its Innovation History ...............5
The Organisations existing Innovation Performance and Capabilities .................................8
Knowledge Transfer through Cross-Functional Co-operation.............................................12
Gantt Chart for completion of innovation based techniques................................................12
Pestle Analysis......................................................................................................................15
Porter's five force model ......................................................................................................16
The Industry in 2021 ...........................................................................................................17
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................19
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20
Books and Journal ..............................................................................................................20

Executive Summary
In the digital age, innovation is an ongoing and complex process within an organization.
Therefore, management innovation is a basic management activity that enterprises must apply in
management activities. This report discusses innovation in the automotive industry in the context
of Aston Martin. The company is a leading organization in delivering luxury sports cars to
customers using high-quality technology. The report effectively describes the company's history
of innovation in launching new vehicles with new technologies. To further analyse the
performance and capabilities of the Aston Martin SWOT and VRIO analysis framework used in
the report. Finally, the report effectively showcases the development trends of the auto industry
in 2021 such as autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles and artificial intelligence

INTRODUCTION
Innovation is the key to the success of every organization in the automotive industry.
Innovation auditing is a method of identifying and understanding how an organization is
effectively and successfully managing innovation (Prange and Schlegelmilch, 2018). The
purpose of this report is to develop an innovation audit of Aston Martin, the market leader in the
UK luxury car industry. The report will examine the organization's past, present and future
innovation activities and capabilities. The report will include an overview of the organization and
its history of innovation. In addition, the organization's existing innovation performance and
capabilities are discussed in the report. Finally, there is industry analysis for 2021 is discussed in
the report.

MAIN BODY
The Organisation & Industry Overview
The Organisation (introduce the chosen organisation) and its Innovation History
Overview of organisation
Aston Martin Logonda is the public limited company in the British Automotive industry.
The company is independent manufacturer of the luxury sports cars and grand tourers. The
company was established in year 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. The company is
headquartered at Gaydon, Warwickshire, England, UK (LSE_AML_2020.pdf, 2020). The
company is international organisation with employee strength of 3000. the company only offer
luxury cars to their customers as it has monopoly in the market for manufacturing explicitly high
quality luxury cars.
Innovation history
Aston Martin, a car company founded 109 years ago in 1913, is known for its
differentiation in building luxury sports cars. The company's history of innovating through
technology surpasses its limits, making it a market leader (PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE:
ASTON MARTIN’S DYNAMIC STORY, 2022). In its early history, by combining aerodynamic
innovation and elegant design, the company has developed some of the brand's most iconic and
legendary luxury car models, from the 1934 Ulster and 1977 V8 Vantage to the DB11.

The company has a long history of innovation, as Aston Martin engineers and designers have
enhanced the performance of sports cars. Aston Martin's technological innovations have reduced
drag, wind noise and other aerodynamic instabilities such as lift for most of this century. In
Ulster in 1934, Aston Martin used innovations in aerodynamic elements to provide models for
amateur racers.
With the innovation of 100 mph car featured a deliberately low frontal area. In the history
based on the Mkll chassis, the model was replica of the racing Aston Martin which won the prize
in the RAC tourist Trophy. In continue to this, in the mid-1930s 15/98 2-litre Speed Model C-
Type variant, with its early attempts at streamlining, earlier to this a breakthrough demonstrated
by the unique Atom prototype, formulated in 1939. Thus, this innovation of Atom by the Aston
Martin was considered dazzling array of new technologies (Biemans, 2018). Later in 1940 the
Atom was completed and registered after the allied evacuation from Dunkirk.

These innovation has helped the company to win the World Sports Car Championship in
the same year. Additionally, German aerodynamicist Wunibald Kamm discovered in 1965 that
the rear of a car was chopped off almost vertically. In 1965, the company innovated the DB6 at
the London Motor Show, which was still the longest-running Aston Martin model in the history.
Now, the latest sports car from the company DB11, with some modifications as an "aesthetic
revolution", articulates a clean car design with the most specific features of its innovative
aerodynamics (PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE: ASTON MARTIN’S DYNAMIC STORY, 2022).
Throughout the 1950s Aston Martin's renewed aim was on racing with the different DB-
badged models that brought huge success to the company. In 1959 the innovation of DBR1, with
lightweight space, streamlined body has beat the Ferrari in the Le Mans 24- hours race. Aston
Martin has globally 508 patents among which 82% parents are active. In year 2021 the company
has generated the annual revenue of $563.77 million (Aston Martin Patents – Key Insights and
Stats, 2021). In comparison to the Aston Martin the rival company Ferrari has been granted with
over 100 US design patents for their cars and other components (17 Feb Protecting Car designs,
2021). Ferrari's annual revenue has increased about by 811 million euros in 2021.

The Organisations existing Innovation Performance and Capabilities
SWOT Analysis of Aston Martin
Aston Martin is the luxury brand famous for manufacturing the luxury sports car. The
company has become a symbol of the British when the famous actor James Bond used it as a
choice of car in film “Goldfinger” this has lead the company to huge degree of popularity. To
analyse the current internal innovation performance and capabilities of the company SWOT
analysis is effective framework to be utilized and discussed below:

Strengths
Good quality cars: with the new edge cutting technology of the company is the key strength of
the company that uses the aerodynamic features (Mousavi, Bossink and van Vliet, 2018).
Through this company is able to design high quality cars that roll out as powerful, perfect and
aesthetically designed cars. Therefore, racers carve for Aston martin because of its high
innovation performance and capabilities.
Illustration 1: How to Complete a Personal SWOT Analysis, 2017
(Source: How to Complete a Personal SWOT Analysis, 2017)
Illustration 2: Carbon Neutral innovative car by Aston Martin, 2022

World class design and engineering topped with leading execution: World class design and
engineering topped with leading execution: Aston Martin is one of the popular brand on
international level which provides high and classic designs of sport cars. The company also have
strong engineering team and designing team which helps it in manufacturing powerful as well as
stylish cars. It is famous for its sports cars which provide high quality and performance for
clients.
Weaknesses:
Dependence on limited number of suppliers: As the respective organisation mainly focus on
providing luxurious sports cars, its range of suppliers become fewer which further leads to their
high power of negotiation (Kim, Paek and Lee, 2022). The company is unable to manufacture
wide range of designs of cars which make it difficult for customers to select their choice of cars.
The limited product portfolio makes it difficult for the company to attract large base of
customers.
Smaller market than other similar companies: The respective company only targets luxurious
and sports car oriented market which mitigate its chances to penetrate into new market. The
market for this type of product is very niche and very few people prefer to buy these types of
cars that results into decrement in market share for the company.
Opportunities:
Affordable automobiles: Aston Martin must focus on expanding its market by introducing auto
mobile products that could be used by people on daily basis. This expansion in product portfolio
will assist the respective company in expanding its market share and attract large base of
customers (Snihur, Zott and Amit, 2021). By manufacturing budgeted auto mobiles respective
company will be able to compete with mass-market auto-mobile producers such as Ferrari and
others.
Rise in electric market vehicles: As people are becoming more concerned towards environment
which is resulting into rise in electric vehicles. This rise in electric market would help the Aston
Martin in shifting its focus towards manufacturing eco-friendly cars that could assist in reducing
its carbon footprints. From this approach the respective company would be able to become
responsible towards environment and enhance its positive image in the market.
Threats:

Rapid change in technology: Aston Martin is facing a huge threat from rapid technological
change due to which company may fails to optimize the use of its resources in production
centres. This can lead to high costs and low profit margins for the company, which can be hugely
detrimental to the company's profitability.
Product innovation and frugal engineering by other competitors: Aston Martin's competitors
focus on making innovative products, creating stiff competition for their respective companies.
The group's competitors have also implemented frugal engineering that helps them reduce the
cost of their products and their manufacturing. These approaches divert customer interest to
different brands, thereby reducing Aston Martin's consumer base. The companies involved must
focus on expanding their product portfolios by introducing new designs that can attract large
numbers of customers.
Illustration 3: Innovation in Automotive industry, 2022

Analysis- The above graphical representation shows that innovation in the automotive industry
has decreased in the last three months. It is major role of Aston martin to focus on development
of innovation in order to capture the marketplace. The sales and profitability of company will be
increased in a crucial manner with the support of innovative techniques.
Knowledge Transfer through Cross-Functional Co-operation
The cross-functional knowledge is considered as key approach which provides whole
perspective of the way different issues and challenges are tackled by each functional group of a
business. It is essential for a business entity to develop knowledge transfer through cross
functional cooperation in order to achieve competitive growth (Jugend, Araujo, and Hilletofth,
2018). The knowledge is developed through sharing in a systematic manner by developing a
cross-functional approach. It is major role of a business to develop knowledge through cross-
functional co-operation in order to gain marketplace success. Aston Martin company should also
develop effective strategies and frameworks which are important for supporting knowledge
through cross-functional co-operation.
Gantt Chart for completion of innovation based techniques
Activities Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4
Conducting
survey and
research for the
innovation
Development of
innovative
process
Evaluation of
innovative
process
Innovation
assessment and